The Imp Site

Rallies

From Cars and Car Conversions 5 (1969), no. 7 (July):
Rootes have withdrawn from international motoring events. This sad fact had been rumoured for some time before the official announcement, though we were reluctant to believe it, because of the company's recent successes - the Marathon, Peter Harper winning the Rallycross championship and Colin Malkin scooping the MN rally series last year.
The anonymous spokesman's reasons for withdrawal? "The commercial value obtainable is now outweighed by costs", he said.

Halfway the 70s, Colin Wilson of Cars and Car Conversions went to visit Colin Malkin, driver of the Chrysler Dealer Team and looked at the latest from Britain's fastest developing works rally team: Avengers and the Sunbeam Rally Imp.

Circuit of Ireland

1995

1996

There were 32 starters in the Historic Rally of the Circuit of Ireland in 1996 on Friday 5th April. Three of those were Imps:
In class B1: no. 213, a Sunbeam Stiletto driven by Derek Parling/Christine Parling from Bridlington and no. 218, a Hillman Imp with Philip Wylie/Gregory Lockwood from Kusnacht
In class C1: a Hillman Imp with no. 235 with David Moore/Gary Moore from Newtownards

Chequered Flag Imber Stages Rally

1996, 6 Apr.

In Class H13 a Hillman Imp competed: car no. 112, driver/codriver John Morris / Peter Rust. It finished 2nd in class and as 67 overall (which wasn't last ;-) It took him 108:11. The winner in a Escort Cos needed 78:11. No. 68 overall, a Nova which won Class A5 needed 116:34. So there.

Coronation Rally

1984

Peter Hurst competed in a Californian, no. 27

East African Safari Rally

A painting by David Shepherd: an Imp competing in the East African Safari Rally

Finnish Rallysprint Championship

1995

Jari Pehkonen drove his 27th race on ice and gravel in an Imp and became 10th. He has won 24 times in class and once overall.

Finnish Road-racing Championship

1995

In the Touring Saloon class under 2000cc, Jari Kämäräinen won his first championship with his Citroën-engined Stiletto, and Ilkka Jutila came second. There were eight starts. Jari won seven and Ilkka one, beating many more powerful cars.

Jyväskylän Suurajot

Nigel Davies, 9 Feb 2001:
I have recently purchased TFD 46 N
Nigel Davies, 2 Oct 2002:TFD 46 N (ex Jon Lloyd Rally car which won the 1975 British Rally Championship) presently sits in my garage awaiting restoration.
1974 Hillman Imp, built by Andy Dawson & John Lloyd. The car won the 1976 BTRDA/CCC Rally Championship.
Ken Green, Feb 8, 2001:
I helped with service for Jon and the Imp and have memories of sleeping in the car when the Transaxle broke in Broxa forest.

Triple C Rally

Over 10 rounds

1975

Although a Mini Cooper S won outright, it was Imps which shone in the 1300 class, with three of them in the overall top 20, proving that a one litre class would have been rather superfluous (They were in Class A: up to 1300cc).
4. Jonathan Lloyd 43 pts. (TFD 46N, double headlights)
5. Peter Bryant 40 pts. (WGT 6M)
16 Dick Lust 13 pts

1971, June 6 - 9th

Rosemary Smith drove an Imp borrowed from Mark Perry to win for herself yet another Coupe des Dames. Just after the classic Ae farmhouse, past the usual Forest of Ae approach road traffic jams she got a broken steering arm changed for one from a spectator's car.

Malkin was in front for a while in his Imp, doing battle with the Escorts.

There were quite a number of wrecks. Most spectacular departure from earth seemed to be Robin Eyre-Maunsell's flying Imp. They flew nearly into the Loch itself, on Eckside. He and Austin Frazer were extremely lucky to escape with just a few bruises; the car - a complete and utter 'total loss'.

At Grantown the small class 2 line-up was Kennedy and Brown in Imps, then the Triple C Skoda (R. Hudson-Evans) 3rd and the Comrie DAF 55 Marathon in its fourth place. The Skoda won the Group 1 up to 1150 cc by just 3 minutes and 2 seconds from Kennedy's Imp. CCC wrote: "Skoda were delighted (Chrysler were not)."

170 started, 94 finished. Of the 10 all-women crews, 5 finished, led by Miss Rosemary Smith, Dublin and Mrs. Alice Watson, Bearsden, in a Hillman Imp. The runners up for the Coupe des Dames were Mrs. Margaret Lowrie, formerly of Dundee, and Miss Ann Hope, London, also in an Imp. Mrs. Lowrie ha competed in 13 Scottish Rallies and finished in 12.

TAP Portuguese Rally

1971, October 7 - 10th

Colin Malkin had to retire his Hillman Imp: rolled out/locked clutch.

Welsh International Rally

Org.: South Wales Automobile Club. 39 stages

1975, 9-11 May

National or Restricted Rallies

The Suffolk Stages, one of the series of Autumn day-stage Rallies. It was run jointly by the West-Essex and West Suffolk clubs. In 1970 there were 120 entries. The class up-to 1000cc was taken by Mark Perry's Imp (Group 2), built by Car Accessory Motors of Potters Bar, using some of the parts from the Imp that Mark drove for Lynton Racing.